No comments about Crests from the ocean-world: Or, Experiences in a voyage to Europe principally in France, Belgium and England, in 1847 and 1848, comprising sketches in ... worlds, Paris, Brussels, and London.

1 comments about Paris on the Seine, the City, the River, the Romance of the Centuries Told in Words and Pictures.

1. This is an exceptionally interesting book filled with many stories of how the city of Paris came to be. It is filled with drawings, paintings and photographs of life along the Seine River and the history that took place from an anecdotal point of view. The approach that the author took to this book is to allow the reader to understand the stories behind the stones that you see as you walk along the Seine in Paris. Here is an excerpt from the dustjacket: "Behind an old facade they will see the sahadow of a beautiful, plotting woman; in an ancient square they will see traces of riot and massacre; here and there in the street they will see a grandiose gesture, hear a colorful phrase, remember an old tale of love...Paris on the Seine is a promenade along the river past whose shores flows the history of Paris. And Paris is the core of France. Not textbook history, but the tumultuous passionate actions of men and women that raised buildings and brought them down again, spanned the river with bridges, named streets that were then renamed and renamed again..."

No comments about From a Paris garret,.

No comments about Michelin Green Guide Paris (4th ed).

No comments about Periwinkle Isn't Paris.

No comments about Chateaux de la Loire.

5 comments about Frommer's Irreverent Guide: Paris.

1. If you still believe that all French waiters are rude, that Parisians structure their lives around making unsuspecting Americans feel bad, and that being in France's commercial establishments means always being on your guard, then this is the book for you. Unevenly written (can't Frommer afford copy editors?) and sometimes downright silly, what this book nevertheless has going for it is an excellent and up-to-date list of restaurants, shops, bars, and hot spots (although look elsewhere for accommodations). That alone makes the book worth a look. The map of recommended establishments and the excellent bits of advice on how to take care of daily necessities make this book valuable, but it is unnecessarily smug, ultimately feeding into the same tired stereotypes of the French we've heard for years. As in any major city, no one in Paris much cares about insulting or dissing you, but this book would sometimes have you believe that it's the national pastime.



2. If you have bought other travel guides to Paris such as Frommer's or Fodor's, this "Irreverent Guide" will add nothing of value to your experience of Paris. It seems to me that the title is misleading and very gimmicky. Invest the ... + shipping in a good lunch for one. Or give it away to someone who needs it, or simply save it. This book is not worth it. I rate this book one star.



3. If being irreverent is stating that Parisian waiters can be rude, then I've missed the point of this book somewhere. Everbody KNOWS that Parisian waiters can be rude. Just be rude back!

   I can't help feeling that Alexander F. Lobrano (Heidi Ellison in the first edition) have just dug around to exaggerate the things they don't like, and played down (or even omitted) the good things. For example, in a section marked 'Secret Gardens', how can Parc Andre Citroen be considered secret and Jardins Albert Kahn completely missed? It makes a mockery of claiming to be a true guide. Much better (if you're French-speaking) to get yourself a copy of 'Paris inattendu' by Michel Dansel. You get the truth AND a lot of fresh information.




4. I bought the Irreverent Guide to London when I traveled to Britain two years ago, and I had such a good experience with that book that I bought this one for my upcoming trip to Paris. I have also read Fodor's and have done extensive research online, but I like the irreverent book because it's small, informative, and opinionated. I don't need another sixty pages listing the museums in France. What I need is for someone knowledgable to tell me which museums are worth the time and which ones aren't



5. This guide is so poorly done that I wasted valuable time and missed out on some wonderful experiences while on a short vacation to Paris. All the writer needed to do to make things easy was to include the arrondissement or section of the city when recommending a destination. I spend too much time scanning the maps, looking for the subway stop provided. Do not waste your money on this book.

No comments about Paris: L'Album du Voyage (The Travel Notebook).

5 comments about Footsteps.

1. I read this the spring it came out, the spring I learned that once again there would be no summer vacation, no breaking free of the time zone. As much as a book can stand in for actual experience, this did, and I got a rollicking review of Romantic figures in the bargain. Holmes obviously conducts meticulous research, but he writes it up in a style that has the sweep of a fine novel. He is a master at marrying study and action.



2. Beginning with a journey tracing Stevenson's walking tour in France, Holmes shows himself to be both a remarkable adventurer and writer. The thing that comes out clearly when he discovers the ruins of a bridge crossed by Stevenson is that the past is the past. And while it has an impact on the world today, it is gone. If you only read it for the first essay, it is well worth the money. The other essays explore other themes that affect biographers. A superb book that should be read by anyone interested in the mysrerious relationship between biographer and subject.



3. This is the kind of book at which Holmes, in my view, excels. I'm not that particularly fond of his painstaking mammoth biographies of Shelley and Coleridge because, well, they're too run-of-the-mill and not all that much fun to read.-In other words, just the opposite of books like this one. This type of book, where the relationship between Holmes and the author he is writing about is constantly in play add a mystery and a haunted quality inherent in the time elapsed between Holmes' time and the author's that keeps the readers attention constantly transfixed (or, at least, this reader's). As Holmes himself puts it, "The material surfaces of life are continually breaking down, sloughing off, changing, almost as fast as human skin." Examples: The passage on Shelley's view of the double, the "ghost of the living person" the view of which signified the shadow world invading this one; Shelley's view that this is what was happening to him just before he drowned himself is the most affecting passage I've read on Shelley's end, and together with the photograph of the Casa Magni, which I'd never actually seen, and whose setting Mary Shelley said caused them to be in touch with the unreal sent shivers up my spine. It's not to be missed.-The section on Nerval was also interesting, as were the others. Curiously, the same sort of thing seems to have affected Nerval "...Here began for me what I shall call the overflowing of dreams into real life." Both sections are excellent and Holmes' speculation that "Nerval's whole work was a form of suicide note" seems right on the mark. The other sections are intriguing as well, but these two haunted me the most. In a moment of brave self-exposure where Holmes is following Shelley's footsteps in Rome, he recounts a dinner where they toasted Shelley as a fellow-exile and his name "rang to the roof." Holmes writes, "I sat there looking at my plate dangerously close to tears. I...determined to write a book for people like them too, who would never read it, people who have lost most things except hope."-You've succeeded Mr Holmes.



4. Richard Holmes is a man profoundly obsessed with other people's lives. This book reflects the process of how the author struggled to come to terms with the mysterious past which is flitting away from us. It is also a book which tries to answer the question "Why should it matter?"
   
   Whether hunting for the Shelleys in Italy or pursuing Stevenson in the Cevennes, Holmes manages to convey the feeling that it does matter, that these people had their share in shaping European culture and literature.
   
   However, there is a price to be paid if one aims to bring ghosts back to life. The author is ever balancing on the fine edge of cutting himself off from the present, of falling into the abyss of the past and never wake up again, and he is painfully aware of this.
   
   Holmes seems to conceive of biography as a temporary annihilation of his own self in order to grasp the world that his subjects moved in. The literary outcome is a great and full picture. On a personal level, it is trauma.
   
   This book will (if it is not already) be a classic for anyone remotely interested in reading or writing biography.



5. I waited almost 20 years to track down this book. My advice to you, Reader, is don't wait a single minute. "Footsteps" is delightful from multiple vantage points. Holmes is a fine, empathic writer who reveals the inner workings of the process of biography. He is also an insightful travel writer with a strong sense of place. While I greatly enjoyed his chapter on Robert Louis Stevenson, I was fascinated by his treatment of Gerard de Nerval. This is one literary byway that should not be missed.

No comments about Unusual Shopping in Paris (Michelin Green Guides).